Howdy all,

So I'm under the car yesterday, changing an oil pressure sensor and I notice my oil pan has oil dripping off and the pan is wet. Not alot of oil, but a couple of pan bolts have drops forming. Can't really tell where the oil is coming from but the bottom of the starter has residual oil on it too. So I rinsed the area with solvent and will keep an eye on it.

Is there a component in that area that usually develops a leak, or has a tendency to go bad? Next oil change I'll probably do the oil pan gasket for good measure, it looks simple enough. There'* no oil on the ground in my parking spot but I do get an occaisional whiff of oil smoke in the car.

Oil pan gasket. A some what common problem. Mine drips as well, one of these days I'll change mine.

That sounds like your oil pan gasket. But if it'* any higher up, replace the valve cover gaskets and grommets. Whatever you do, torque the bolts properly.

When I pulled out my starter, it was covered in gunk. (EDIT: after driving with leaking VC gaskets for a while.)

Mine oil pan gasket leaks a little aswell

My pan leaks also...one of these days off with the pan, clean the surfaces up, new gasket, maybe some RTV, put the pan back and torque the bolts down.

In the 2000+ the oil pan gasket is not as common as the 92-99 style. In 92-99 there was a plastic gasket that acted as a windage tray and didn't seal well. 2000+ had either a rubber inlaid gasket or was engine bonded with goop to the motor w/o an actual gasket and the windage tray is part of the pan.

A very common and usually overlooked leak is the rear engine cover. It'* impossible to see, impossible to repair w/o pulling motor/trans and usually seeps.

To diagnose the leak, I'd hop back under the rear and look up with a light at the engine. Like mentioned in an earlier post, the valve covers are quite common points of leaking. If you see oil going up the block/head, you will want to change the valve cover gaskets first.